


I'll Bloom With You

by Lalikaa



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:59:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26200768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalikaa/pseuds/Lalikaa
Summary: Four snapshots detailing Al and Mei's future in Xing together.
Relationships: Mei Chan | May Chang/Alphonse Elric
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	I'll Bloom With You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello! I adore Al and Mei, and I hope you enjoy this fic! :D

The culture shock honestly wasn’t as bad as Al thought it would be. Maybe that was due to all the cultures he and Ed had encountered throughout their quest as young teenagers. Al, now 19, had spent nearly a year in Xing. He still remembers his first day clearly.

The trek across the desert hadn’t been easy. In fact, it had been absolute hell. Zampano and Jerso were very resourceful though, and of course, the journey wouldn’t have been possible without the guides Mei had sent, Niu and Zhilan. Both women had indescribable internal compasses and led the trio through the desert at a steady pace. Still, despite his companions, Al was not used to being so goddamn hot. He could feel the heat baking his skin and he’d forgotten just how uncomfortable sweat could be.

The first thing Al said to Mei when they arrived was: “How on earth did you do that by yourself when you were a kid?!”

Mei, knowing immediately what he meant, huffed, “I wasn’t a kid, I was twelve! And I wasn’t by myself, I had Xiao-Mei!”

Xiao-Mei, upon hearing her name, leaped from Mei’s shoulder to Al’s and was soon followed by Mei, the two of them tackling Al to the ground.

“I missed you guys too,” Al wheezed, as soon as he managed to garner some breath back into his lungs.

“It feels like I’ve been waiting forever,” Mei said, squeezing Al tight.

Mei was quick to show Al, Jerso, and Zampano around the Imperial grounds. Emperor Ling Yao had promoted Mei to an official translator, so she now lived in a suite with her mother and grandmother by the palace. Mei was still sure to send money out to her clan and visit as often as possible to help with renovations in their village.

“How many fountains can you have?” Jerso said incredulously as they passed what was likely the fifteenth fountain on their way to the palace.

“Apparently never enough,” Zampano said, eyebrows raised as they passed what seemed to be the sixteenth fountain.

The palace itself was so grand, Al could hardly fathom it. It wasn’t anything like he had ever encountered before.

Al wasn’t quite sure if it was the polished marble floors, the gorgeous silk tapestries hanging on the walls, vases of colorful bouquets of flowers, or the dozens of delicate pottery and sculptures on display, but the palace certainly screamed “ritzy”, hundreds of miles away from his hometown of Resembool, both literally and figuratively.

Mei lightly bumped into him as he rubbed one of the corners of a tapestry between his fingers, admiring the warm colors and coolness of the touch.

“You ok?” Mei asked. “I know it’s a long journey.”

“You’re tellin’ me!” Jerso interjected. “I’m gonna write Mustang a letter to tell him that he needs to finish that train project, stat.”

“How do you all know about the train project?” Mei said, mildly surprised. She clearly thought it wasn’t public knowledge yet.

“Mustang wrote the Elrics, then Al here told us on the train ride out East,” Zampano filled her in.

“Yeah,” Al said. “Pretty much. It really isn’t an easy journey.”

When the chimeras wandered off to follow an attendant who would show them to their rooms, Al asked about Ling.

“Ah, he’s away on business today, but he should be back late tonight! If you don’t want to stay up he’ll definitely want to greet you with a big, traditional breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“It really is very generous of him to let us stay in the palace for an indefinite amount of time,” Al said, knowing full well how outlandish the very idea sounded.

Mei rolled her eyes. “Please. He totally owes you guys. Without you and your brother, he wouldn’t even be emperor!”

Al let out a nervous laugh. “I guess when you put it like that… but still. I’m so excited to learn Alkahestry and more about your country and culture, though I’m… I’m a little nervous. About fitting in. I’m a country boy from a hick town in the middle of nowhere in Amestris, spent the majority of my teen years being a vagabond in a suit of armor, and now I’m going to live in a palace? It’s pretty crazy, right?” He grinned sheepishly.

“Of course it’s crazy!” Mei said, throwing up her arms, Xiao-Mei copying this movement. “And of course you won’t fit in perfectly! It’s like you said, you came here to learn and to be my student in Alkahestry! Just be as excited that you’re here as I am!” Mei’s voice rose a little higher than she intended during this spiel, so her cheeks grew a little pink.

Al laughed as both Mei and Xiao-Mei burst forward, nearly tackling him again in another hug.

“Ok, ok!” He said. “I will!”

~~*~~

“I can’t believe she’s gone!” Mei said, the concern rising high in her voice like a tide in the ocean.

“Where did you see her last?” Al asked.

“At breakfast! But it’s been over five hours, it’s so unusual for her to not show up for that long,” Mei said, her voice wobbly.

“We’ll find her, Mei! Don’t worry!”

It was already afternoon, although it wasn’t until evening that Al started becoming concerned as well. They had checked over every inch of the palace, including the gardens.

When he and Mei regrouped, Al suggested making posters.

“It worked once, didn’t it? Remember when Ed and I were trying to find you? The posters really helped! And I’m a much better artist than my brother!”

Mei groaned.

“That’s not saying much though, Alphonse.”

“Hey!”

“Let’s just split up, we can cover more ground that way!” Mei said.

“Alright, alright.”

So here Al was, 7 at night, searching every alleyway in the city, and he couldn’t help but remember the time he had found the current emperor of Xing in an alleyway. Ah, memories.

After checking in a few more shops and walking by several merchants selling various fruits and flowers, he walked around the corner and peered into another alleyway, where he heard some rustling. He took a few steps in and goddammit if Ling didn’t give him a heart attack.

“Alphone?” Ling said incredulously. “What on earth are you do-”

“LING I COULD ASK Y-” Al was cut off quickly by a metal hand clasped over his mouth.

Al had good memories, like with his mom and Ed when they were younger. He had bittersweet memories, like when he finally got his body back. And then… and then he just had weird memories, which the emperor of Xing was apparently hell-bent on repeating.

“Lan-fan, you can let him go.”

“I don’t understand-” Al began.

“I was craving some good street food, my bodyguards refused to let me leave because apparently I’m hosting and apparently it’s rude to go off to the city without inviting your guests.”

“So we went anyway,” Lan-fan supplied.

“Naturally,” Al responded.

“When a man is craving meat, he can’t ignore it, you know!” Ling said.

“You haven’t grown up at all, have you?” Al deadpanned.

“Hey, even the ruler of a nation needs a little ‘me’ time,” Ling shrugged.

“Apparently,” Al said.

Ling grinned. “So what are you doing out here?”

“I’m looking for Xiao-Mei. She’s missing, and Mei has been worried sick.”

Lan-fan snorted. “That little menace? I saw her perched on the windowsill of the dining hall on our way out.”

“How did you see her…?”

“We took the roofs,” Ling said.

“Obviously,” Lan-fan said, jumping up on a dumpster. Ling, with a stick of street meat still hanging from his lips, followed her, and Al watched as the two leapt onto a nearby windowsill from the dumpster, catapulting themselves to the rooftops.

Some things really never change, Al thought.

Once back at the palace, Al searched the dining room, checking all the windowsills, but with no luck. He turned around dejectedly to head back out, only to spot a black tuft of fur on a dinner platter.

No way.

He walked over, picking up the sleeping Xiao-Mei, who then nuzzled into his neck, then hurried off to find Mei.

At least he knew Mei wouldn’t be hiding out in some alleyway.

~~*~~

Food was undeniably one of Al’s favorite things. Ever since getting his body back, Al was sure to take advantage of trying every type of food possible. Naturally, upon moving to Xing, Al was thrilled about all the new food, and in Xing, there were plenty of flavorful options.

If anyone loved food as much as Al, though, it was Zampano and Jerso. Not only could both men already pack in a fair amount at meals, the fact that they also appreciated the different flavors of foreign cuisine made Al worry about causing a food shortage.

Al’s favorite food, he had quickly learned, were dumplings. The amazing thing about dumplings is that they could be filled with anything, so you were pleasantly surprised every time. Whether filled with spiced curry, pork, or vegetables, they were always delicious.

This made it easy for Mei to pick out restaurants for them to eat out at; all she had to do was find dumplings somewhere in their special or on the menu. However, after spending nearly a year in Xing, Al was now familiar with many of the restaurants in the Imperial area. His favorite was a restaurant called Baole, and it was here that Al decided he would take Mei on a date.

What Al had not planned for was his officially unofficial bodyguards to tag along.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Jerso asked, affronted when Al said he didn’t want them to come. “We love Baole!”

“Because,” Al hissed. “It’s a date.”

“All the more reason for us to come,” Zampano said. “Princess Mei has a lot of suitors, I’m sure. We need to protect you from them.”

“She doesn’t have suitors.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Jerso said.

“Goddammit.”

It was impossible to shake them, once they’d made up their minds. And forget mentally, there was definitely no way of shaking them physically either. They both still had their animal instincts intact, so tracking the couple would prove to be no issue. It was a sticky situation for Al, no matter what way he looked at it.

And so, for his first date, the bodyguards tagged along.

Mei thought it was hilarious, but Al failed to see the humor in the situation.

“This just… isn’t how I pictured our first date,” Al said, over Jerso and Zampano’s chewing. They were seated at a square table laden with nine different dishes (seven of them for the chimeras). There was also a lovely bunch of violets on the table in a clear vase, but Al couldn’t take the time to appreciate them at the present moment. Al wasn’t even sitting next to Mei; Jerso and Zampano were seated at both sides.

Mei reached out across the table, over the food and around the flowers, and Al, understanding her intention, gratefully offered up his hand for her to hold.

“Just you inviting me out to lunch is more than enough! It’s not like this has to be our only date, right?”

“But it’s not going to be the only date that these two tag along on,” Al said.

“We can hear you, ya know,” Jerso said.

“You’re not supposed to go on excursions on your own,” Zampano added.

“Going out to lunch isn’t an excursion!”

Al was, once again, woefully ignored.

“I’ll pick the next restaurant, ok?” Mei said cheerfully.

“Ok,” Al responded, still glum.

The rest of lunch passed normally, though on the walk back from Baole, Al murmured to Mei, “I thought you would be more, you know, on my side?”

Mei whispered back, “I don’t know about you, but I’m on the side of not telling any of our bodyguards about when our next date is.”

Al grinned, before whispering, “I can get on board with that. As long as our next date can be our real, official first date.”

“Promise!” Mei said softly, reaching out to grab Al’s hand yet again.

They held hands all the way back to the palace.

~~*~~

Al thought about many things as they traipsed through the Imperial Gardens. He thought about how he could smell all of the different types of flowers. Mei had been teaching him the names of all of them: perennials, lilies, orchids, plum blossoms, poppies… It was hard to believe so many existed, and how they all had their own unique smell. He loved touching the flowers too, even though Mei scolded him and said it wasn’t good for the flowers to rub them the way Al liked to. The petals were buttery soft, light to the touch. He thought about how bright the greenery was surrounding the gardens. Everything had more of a dullish tint when he was in the armor. Now, colors burst in his vision, bright pinks, sunny yellows, gentle blues, deep purples, blinding whites, and bold oranges. The colors were so loud they seemed to have their own sound, and Al thought for a moment how each color might sound. Maybe purple would be low, like the distant humming of bees by the honeysuckle. Perhaps pink would be chipper, like the birds flitting around the trees. Orange might sound gravelly, like the sounds of his and Mei’s footsteps on the rough garden path.

He thought about other things, too. Like Mei’s hand, which was so warm in his, and even though it was another hot day in Xingese summer, neither of them let go. In his other hand, Al was gripping a wooden picnic basket, filled with pork buns, fruit, and steamed vegetables. After all these years, Alphonse was still just excited to eat at every meal as he had been for his very first meal back in his body. The salty, savory richness of the pork buns, the sweetness of the fruits, the spices on the vegetables... His mouth began to water just thinking about it, just as Mei asked:

“What are you thinking about, Alphonse? You’ve been so quiet.”

“Everything,” Al answered honestly. “But mostly, about how much food I’m going to eat.”

“Always thinking about food,” Mei said fondly. “This is why Grandmother likes you best.”

It was true. Mei’s mother and grandmother adored Alphonse, mainly because he ate everything in sight, and his compliments were as plentiful as the dishes her family made.

“I can’t help it that food is so delicious, you know!” Al said, a slight hint of indignance in his tone.

“Oh, it’s here!” Mei said suddenly. She pointed to a clearing beneath a spread-out cluster of plum trees.

“It’s beautiful,” Al grinned. “Just like you.”

Mei laughed, warmth from a blush rising high on her cheeks.

“Always a way with words,” she murmured.

“I’m staaaarving, let’s eat!” Al whined, still grinning as he took Mei’s hand and led her to the grassy clearing. The two of them spread out their picnic blanket and began setting out their lunch.

They laid out a spread of fresh pork and onion dumplings, pickled beets, grapes, peaches, an assortment of berries, a thermos of cold tea, and a sweet red bean roll cake for dessert. Al knew he could likely eat all of it on his own, but held back as much as he could. They enjoyed their peaceful meal together, with only the light sound of the wind rustling leaves in the trees to keep them company.

“You can have the last dumpling,” Mei told him before they dug into the cake, and Al felt himself fall in love with her just a little more.

As they lay on the picnic blanket together, bellies full, skin warmed pleasantly by the sun, Al thought of how everything he’d worked for, all his pain, blood, and failures, all of it was worth it to be in this moment now.

“I never thought I’d be here,” he murmured.

“I know what you mean,” Mei said with a small whistling of laughter. “We’ve both been through a lot, haven’t we?”

“That’s certainly one way to put it.”

“You know, I was always trying to prove myself, to be more than I was,” Mei said, sighing. “Until I figured out I could just be.”

“You’re everything and more,” Al said firmly.

“You’re sweet,” Mei said, softer now. “But to my family, to my lineage, I wasn’t enough. And then I met you…”

“...And my dapper ways charmed you into believing in yourself?” Al interrupted, grinning.

“Well…” Mei blushed. “I met you and realized that there are all kinds of people in the world, everyone with their own goals and purposes, and you were dealing with so much, but you still expended the energy to be kind to me. It just meant a lot, and it made me think.”

“You made me think too, you know,” Al said, after a beat of silence. “I was so single-minded, only really thinking about Ed and I’s end goal: to get our bodies back. Running into you, you had such a fierce determination. It inspired me, it really did.”

Al realized he was picking and arranging flowers as he was speaking. Their soft petals soothed him, and he continued;

“You’re such a passionate, caring, wonderful person. When you left us in Briggs, I realized how selfless you really were. And still are.”

“I cried so much after I left you all. Your armor was so cold when I hugged it,” Mei smiled, but it faded as she said; “But how selfless was I really? I ended up coming back.”

“Out of concern for everyone. It was a noble thing to do.”

“It was kind of a stupid thing to do.”

“Stupidly noble.”

Mei laughed. “At least I’ve grown since then.”

“You’ve more than just grown. You’ve… it’s more like you’ve bloomed,” Al said, suddenly becoming very interested in twirling a flower stem between his fingers. The petals of the flower blurred into a colorful wheel.

Mei placed her hands over his, the flower falling to the side.

“You’ve bloomed with me, then,” Mei said, smiling up at Al.

And if that wasn’t enough to take Al’s breath away, the kiss that followed certainly was.


End file.
